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"id": 180348,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/180348/?format=api",
"text_counter": 227,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 122,
"legal_name": "Patrick Ayiecho Olweny",
"slug": "patrick-olweny"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to support the Finance Bill. It has been indicated that the economic growth of our country is not going as we expected. That is unfortunate, but it is the circumstances that we had earlier in the year that has led us into that mess. That means that the people who led us into that should see that they have really messed up this country. It was a problem that arose due to elections that were mismanaged. It is unfortunate that the people who mismanaged elections in this country are going to court to say that they should not be disbanded. They know very well that the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) are the ones who created the problems that we got involved in, and they are going to slow down our economic growth. That is very unfortunate. But anyway, given the situation, we now have to come up with incentives that would improve our economic growth rate. It is very encouraging to note that the motorcycle taxi operators have given us an example that, if you give them an incentive through removal of taxation, you can get economic growth. I have seen so many motorcycle taxis bought by the youth in my village and many other villages within my constituency and they have created employment. There are individuals who have quite a number of taxis, other than the youths themselves buying them. Those who have bought those taxis have created employment for the youth who could not afford the taxis. They have hired those youths to ride the taxis and carry passengers, take a little money to the ownerof the taxi in the evening and get some of that money. That is employment creation. It is an incentive. I commend the Minister for Finance for that move. That is the way forward to improve our economic growth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the agricultural sector is a major contributor to our economy. It is the mainstay of the economy of this country. But it has gone down with time. It has gone down substantially. If you look at sub-sectors like the cotton industry, together with the textile industry that is associated with it, it has collapsed. The textile industry has also collapsed, although we have a few industries in the eastern parts of Nairobi. But that is imported fabric which is used to make clothes. If we could give incentives to the cotton sub-sector, we would get back our millers like the textile mills that we had in Thika. They would operate much better. The Kisumu Cotton Mills would also come back into operation. Something needs to be done about the agricultural sector. Prices of fertilisers and other farm inputs have sky-rocketed. They are not within the reach of the farmers. Farmers cannot afford fertilisers. How can the agricultural sector perform well, if the farmers cannot buy fertilisers? It is not imaginable that we can have a performing agricultural sector, if farmers cannot afford farm inputs. I am happy that the Minister for Finance has removed taxation on fuel. It was horrible. The kind of crisis that we had on petroleum products was just unbelievable. But the Minister has helped the country by ordering the removal of some of the taxes. That is, of course, an incentives to the various sectors of this economy. That is because almost every sector rely on fuel. I congratulate the Minister. He did a good job for our economy. Let me come back to the issue of fertilisers. Are we convinced that we cannot manufacture fertilisers in this country? I think we can do it. If we leave out those ones that are manufactured in organic compound, we can manufacture organic fertiliser from the by-products of the agricultural sector. We have by products from the coffee industry, saw mills and the sugar industry. All those could be used to manufacture organic fertiliser. Those by products are ours. They belong to us and we do not need to go and buy them from somewhere. We could manufacture organic fertilisers from those by-products and then sell them cheaply to our farmers. That is an incentive for the purpose of our economic growth. November 11, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3365 The sugar industry in this country--- I have been in this Parliament for five years. This is my sixth year. I have always requested the Minister for Finance to zero-rate VAT on sugar. Sugar is food just like other foodstuffs on which VAT is zero-rated. Why must we charge VAT on sugar? It is the VAT on sugar that makes our local sugar more expensive. It also makes it more lucrative to import sugar from outside. So, VAT is one of those factors that make our sugar more expensive in the market. Why has the Minister for Finance refused to zero-rate VAT on sugar? Sugar is food. On other foods, we have VAT zero-rated. Why is sugar the only one which has been left out? Sugar is consumed by everybody; the young ones, adults, old aged--- Animals suck milk from their mothers when they are young. So, sugar is for everybody, including animals. So, it is a universal food. I am requesting the Minister for Finance to zero-rate VAT on sugar. It will be an incentive to the sugar industry. We will produce cheaper sugar. You have heard the Minister for Agriculture shouting at sugar barons who are importing sugar. One of the reasons why those people are importing sugar and being a threat to our sugar industry is VAT. Other things that the Minister needs to look into with regard to the sugar industry are some of the by-products from the sugar industry. Molasses is being used to produce tea leaves. In fact, in my constituency, there is an agro-chemical company which produces spirits from molasses. Also, the molasses complex factory in Kisumu - Spectre International - is also producing spirits from molasses. But there is that Excise Duty which discourages them from exporting that product. It is understandable to tax the one that they are selling locally. But exporting spirits derived from molasses is really a problem to those factories because there is a lot of taxation on it. The question is: If they are exporting, why can we not have the country where it is being imported charge heavy taxation? Why do we have to impose heavy taxation on our produce being exported and yet, those two factories have created employment? The Agro Chemical Company, in my constituency employs more than 2,000 people in that small factory. The molasses factory employs over 3,000 people. We are discouraging them by imposing heavy taxation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is no economy that can grow without good infrastructure. Look at the railway system! Something needs to be done and done very fast! Recently, our President said that the four-axle vehicles should be removed from our roads. In fact, Kenya is the only country in East Africa where four-axle vehicles destroy our roads! Let us rehabilitate the railway system so that heavy loads are transported by the railway system. That is what is done in other countries. How shall we grow if we cannot transport our goods? The roads are really dilapidated because of the heavy trucks. That has made the cost of maintaining vehicles very high. Even the amount of money the Government spends on maintaining those roads is too high! The contractors who have been put on those roads to maintain them are actually swindling the Government of its money! So, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to do something about our infrastructure for the purpose of economic growth. In fact, hon. Ogindo talked about the maintenance of those motorcycles which our youth have bought. The people who have bought them have employed many youths. They are using them as taxis. But the roads on which they are riding those motorcycles are terrible. When it rains on those murram roads, it is terrible! Yesterday, I was in my constituency and a number of them were being pushed. Can you imagine pushing a motorcycle that is stuck in mud? Those are things that we see! It is difficult!"
}